Forum:Skin change
The current skin will soon be slightly changed after I've cleaned the Monaco.css file which I am currently testing (because of MediaWiki:Monaco.css, the skin does not appear correctly if you want to test it). I've adjusted some colors and added a little background where the logo is (so no major changes in my opinion). I'm adding back the "Create a page/upload an image" that you can see on most other wikis on Wikia. I've been wanting to update the skin for a while, but I got sidetracked, and I wanted to do it with the main page too. However... Wikia is changing the default skin from Monaco to Oasis. The staff has been/will be posting previews of the skin. It is unknown when they will make Oasis the default skin, and if it will change from what is known currently. The skin is under beta, and they're still accepting testers. Since the skin will change the wiki completely (for better or for worse), that should explain my reluctance to update the main page, heh. I should add that the admins do not have control over such changes. I don't believe moving from Wikia is a viable option. --'D.' (talk ·''' ) 19:38, September 3, 2010 (UTC) An update for those who are interested in what the wiki will look like: better screenshots of the skin have been released on a recent Wikia's staff blog. Somehow, I get the feeling the final skin will not be much different. --'''D. (talk ·''' ) 21:44, September 15, 2010 (UTC) Wikia skin live The new skin (now called "Wikia") is now live on some wikis. It is possible to view our pages by adding ?useskin=wikia to any url on the wiki, e.g. http://domo.wikia.com/wiki/Abacus?useskin=wikia (oh the horror). I haven't looked and tested if it's possible to make heavy changes to the skin, so... stay tune for more news on how to save the wiki (yay). --'''D. (talk ·''' ) 19:06, September 23, 2010 (UTC) :Wikia removed that "feature", so no one can see now. :< --'''D. (talk ·''' ) 22:43, September 23, 2010 (UTC) :In comparing the Monaco and "new" versions, none of the the MediaWiki notice pages show up at all in the new versions from what I can tell. I don't know if there's a way around that. →[[User:SSF|SSF]] (talk) 04:01, September 24, 2010 (UTC) ::I hope this is really a bug (I've sent a ticket). --'''D. (talk ·''' ) 15:27, September 24, 2010 (UTC) Transition to the new skin I don't think the option to make Monaco the default skin is possible, so we'll need to adapt. Most glaring change is the sidebar (which is hardly a sidebar, heh). We only get 4 menus for navigation: how do we organize this, and which ones get the axe? As for the skin itself, I don't mind keeping the same color scheme as the current skin. I am against using big backgrounds, as it distracts from the content and can slow down the site (we really do not need that, the new skin is overloaded with javascript, more than Monaco). Minimal background can be good though. For the logo, we can only use the "Domo" logo and "wiki" word, and perhaps a very small graphic. It just won't be as fancy since it's small. I've talked about making a logo contest with SSF a while back, before Wikia announced the new skin. However, given the circumstances, I don't know how successful it will be. :< --'''D. (talk ·''' ) 15:27, September 24, 2010 (UTC) :I can only narrow it down to three thus far. :*Domo Wiki :*Basics: Maybe rename to Dream of Mirror Online basics. Move content from Dream of Mirror Online menu. Move Events there. :*Items: Menus for equipment. :Remaining: Jobs, Areas, Bestiary, Quests, NPCs, Pets. All of this could go into the basics menu, but might be suited in a new menu (if we can think of a category to encompass some of them). Jobs and pets are our most popular pages, so if one had to stand apart from the others I'd say jobs. →[[User:SSF|SSF]] (talk) 03:41, September 26, 2010 (UTC) ::The site-notice isn't a bug, they just removed that function. Hooray. ::I'd like to keep the Domo Wiki submenu, but since it mostly have to do with maintenance stuff... I guess it gets the axe. Most people probably don't care about templates and maintenance stuff except us, lol. I didn't specify, but the menu is limited to 7 sublinks. D: I still can't think of other menus to include. ::I know it's possible to tweak the skin to make the content space no longer fixed. That would solve all the problems with the tables (it screws up way too many pages at its current state). I'm pretty sure this change will stay (fixed content space at ~680px width). Ikariam has a bigger width content space, which can work too. I'm not saying auto width isn't good, but fixed can help with the layout of the pages, just not 680px. It's too narrowed. I'll look into what is best after testing. ::I want to disable the huge hubs menu (it's freaking too big, the menu looks puny), but I don't know if Wikia will come with pickaxes if we do, haha. I'll still disable it unless we get words to enable it. ::The main page is also getting an overhaul with the skin. I'll probably update it as soon as I can (even if Monaco is still there, it doesn't really change anything). Because of the omnipresent sidebar, it's impossible to create a page for others to preview it, so screenshots it is. --'''D. (talk ·''' ) 14:39, September 26, 2010 (UTC) :: :Sure doesn't seem designed with usability in mind. It's hard to think of design around it until it's implemented, but that Muppets one has decently wide content space, so the content for the most part is not too cramped. In some cases, the smaller space would be beneficial, in making small amounts of content seem more filled out, but for the most part, it seems more like it would result in overly-long articles requiring more scrolling--really a poor design, but also a trend in web design lately. :As for the menus...I've been thinking along similar lines from a dev perspective (working on my programming skills by programming an RPG). Much of the content and structure of a game is closely related, conceptually; I've broken most of it down into just 4 categories: Objects (weapons, armour, consumables, drops, currencies, buildings, trees, fences, etc), Entities (player characters->classes, NPCs, monsters, pets, interactive objects, GMs, etc), Actions (movement, communication, skills, crafting/modding/vending, etc), and Locations (fields, dungeons, towns, interiors and so on). These are the parent classes I'm using, but more common terms could be used for categorizing some of these things along similar lines. Locations maybe doesn't need its own category; it could fit under something along the lines of Basics, along with most of Actions; skills could just go along with classes under Entities. So maybe something like this: :*Basics (containing Interface, Race (though it could go under Entities), Areas, and pretty much everything under the current Basics menu item) :*Entities (containing Jobs, Bestiary, NPCs, Pets) :*Objects (containing Items, Equipment, Recipes) :*Content (containing Quests, Events, Updates, and maybe also the DoMO Wiki category)Asaemon 03:49, September 27, 2010 (UTC) A Wikia staff updated their blog regarding a schedule for the skin release: * October 6, all registered users can use the new skin. * October 20, the new skin replaces Monaco. * November 3, goodbye Monaco. They have also updated their ToU regarding changing the look of the wiki. Basically, we cannot customize it the way we really want to. We're severly restricted. I hope I'll find the time and motivation to changes the templates (or if anyone is brave enough to, that's always welcomed). This is going to suck, a lot. --'''D. (talk ·''' ) 01:20, September 29, 2010 (UTC) : Figured it out (see my response to the blog). They're turning the site from a wiki host to a social networking/microblogging site. They're making the wikis look like a Facebook wall, I guess because they think the layout is what makes Facebook popular. Guess they figure content doesn't really matter.Asaemon 04:17, September 29, 2010 (UTC) ::Several wikis have made it clear that they are moving out because of the changes to the ToU. I'm hoping that, after the skin goes live on all wikis, they're really going to make significant changes to it. Apparently, those who are displeased with the new look are only a minority (I don't know how it was decided on that, I want unbiased statistics), so we don't even matter. It is hard for most people to see the immediate changes at the moment, but me and SSF both have beta access, so we know what is working and what isn't. --'''D. (talk ·''' ) 18:04, September 29, 2010 (UTC) :So the staff have started responding, and apparently the real reason for the narrow content width is so pages will look good on an iPhone. ::As for the stats, my guess is number of commenters vs. number of visitors. Judging by the staff blogs I've seen, there are around 150-250 people actually expressing an opinion. Of them, maybe 3 or 4 like the new skin, though some of them are likely trolls. But there are probably lots of people who make use of a wiki now and then, but never edit it, and likely aren't aware of the impending changes, or simply apathetically accept the changes, even if they dislike them...or will blame them on wiki creators when they're implemented.Asaemon 04:49, September 30, 2010 (UTC) There's just a few days left before registered users can use the new skin. I've been working a bit on the CSS, but it's nowhere near complete (that will be done over next week when I am on holidays, so it won't be ready by October 6th). I've only done basic tweaks, there are still a lot to do (the ThemeDesigner is very limited to truly customize the skin). And there's the whole issue with the logo. For Monaco, although I've known that it uses the Wikia logo for word "wiki", I did not know that it is in violation in accordance to Wikia's logo usage guidelines. It will be edited within next week. For the new skin, the wordmark's dimensions are 250x65 pixels. Currently, it'll be text-only until we can get one that looks fine. I've taken notes of pages using templates that must be changed with the new skin (list of weapons, recipe and collection maps). There are other templates that I have planned to modify before the new skin, but they're still on my low priority list of things to do here (they aren't exactly borked, but they still need to be revamped). --'''D. (talk ·''' ) 18:32, October 3, 2010 (UTC) After looking at how other wikis are handling the new navigation bar (now that the new skin is available to all registered users), here's my suggestions: * Basics: Costume, Collection, Recipes * Character: Jobs, Pets, Items, Equipment * World: Areas, Bestiary, NPCs, Quests * Community: Forum, Templates, Site maintenance Yeah, it doesn't make use of all menus, and each will need to be expanded, and may have some links switch menus (like Pets, it might be better under World). Community is basically Domo Wiki (I don't think it should be removed anymore). --'''D. (talk ·''' ) 22:20, October 10, 2010 (UTC) Yep. Looks "interesting". Lotsa work to do. Will do what I can.Asaemon 23:14, October 12, 2010 (UTC) So the new skin is now up, and we are still with the old navigation, the really "meh" looking skin and the old main page. :'D Sorry about that. I'm still waiting for suggestions regarding these, but I'll eventually change them myself if no one else does. Also, I'm waiting on Wikia's response to wider table before making any changes to our templates. Until then, enjoy Monaco until November 3rd (for logged-in users). --'''D. (talk · ) 03:06, October 23, 2010 (UTC)